How to get great catalog design at little or no cost.

By Susan McIntyre

While the above true story isn’t the best route to create a catalog that sells, taking some design in-house actually can be a good avenue for the budget-conscious cataloger ... if it’s done carefully.

I know a savvy cataloger with a good eye. He’s no designer, but he collects samples of other catalog designs that he feels work well. When it’s time to design his next catalog, he shows his Quark/PhotoShop technician how each idea can be applied to his own catalog’s pages and products. This cataloger must devote a substantial amount of time and thought to the process of working through all the pages with his technician. But his catalog is new, and for the time being, he has more time than money. Plus, the design cycle takes place during his catalog’s slow season when he can devote more time to it. So his current system works well for him.